Every year people in the Northern climes must deal with the yearly problem of snow removal. The problem is particularly onerous for the homeowner wishing to clear his driveway or the small business owner wishing to clear the parking lot of his establishment. They cannot afford the large and expensive special purpose equipment and teams of trained operators which municipalities and large businesses use to clear snow from their streets and facilities.
The solution for the small business owner involves placing a plow attachment on the front of a pick-up truck or other utility vehicle to make the services of a snowplow available.
For the homeowner, the solution often involves hiring one of those entrepreneurs who earn a portion of their income each year by clearing homeowners' driveways for a seasonal fee. These entrepreneurs are faced with the task of rapidly clearing a number of driveways after each snowfall and are constrained by the requirement of keeping their capital expenditures low. Furthermore, they must move their snow removal equipment from one customer's residence to another which may be some distance apart.
The snow removal entrepreneur or small business owner will usually employ a snowplow mounted on a truck which may also serve as the personal vehicle of the entrepreneur.
A front-mounted snowplow is designed to be used while driving forward and is very effective for snowplowing roads, lanes and large parking lots. Front mounted plows, however, present a problem when snowplowing small residential driveways or parking lots in confined places. In these situations, when the snow cannot be pushed forward, the snow must be pulled backwards some distance, then the truck must be turned around and backed over the snow and used to push the snow away. This operation creates several problems. Since the snowplow is usually concave for forward plowing, it presents a convex face when moving backwards, so it does not function well. Additionally, the plow has no downward pressure other than its weight, a few hundred pounds. This low weight combined with a convex shape results in a tendency of the plow to ride up over deep or heavy wet snow. Furthermore, the plow lacks sufficient downward pressure to break through frozen compacted snow or ice.
To overcome these problems, rear scrapers, which attach to the rear of the truck and which utilize the weight of the truck to generate downward pressure have been developed.
Known rear scrapers have limitations which interfere with the general utility uses of the truck or vehicle. These known rear scrapers require removal of the bumper and extend past the end of the truck or lie over the truck bed in the retracted position. Known rear scrapers can be difficult to install requiring extensive modification of the rear-end of the truck. Known rear scrapers can interfere with the general utility of the truck by extending its length or decreasing the truck s over-the-road clearance.
What is needed is a scraper for mounting on the rear of a truck which is disposed substantially beneath the truck and which does not decrease the over-the-road clearance of the truck and which may be installed with relatively slight modification of the rear end of the truck.